New episode in saga of cruise disappearance

Anne W. Semmes

Published 11:35 pm, Thursday, May 9, 2013

CBS News Senior Correspondent John Miller speaks with the parents of George Allen Smith IV during an episode of 48 Hours: Murder at Sea? which will air 10 p.m. Saturday on CBS. Smith, of Greenwich, disappeared from a cruise ship while on his honeymoon nearly eight years ago. A lawyer for the family says the show will reveal new evidence in the unsolved case.
Photo: CBS News

The search for answers to the tragic disappearance of 26-year-old George Allen Smith IV on his honeymoon cruise nearly eight years ago is the focus of yet another television show Saturday night: "48 Hours: Murder at Sea?"

"Important new evidence," promises the tease for the broadcast, "from a videotape in the hands of the FBI made by some of the last men to see George alive."

About the videotape, CBS correspondent John Miller says, "You've got these men joking about George's death, very callous and at one point incriminating."

"The evidence is huge," chimes in Bree Smith, George's sister.

The show will air at 10 p.m. Saturday on CBS.

It was a case that produced sensational headlines as well as legislation to improve cruise safety. Smith, of Greenwich, disappeared from a Royal Caribbean ship on July 5, 2005. His body was not recovered, though bloodstains were found beneath the balcony of the cabin he was sharing with his new wife, Jennifer Hagel-Smith.

The videotape in question was the work of three Russian-Americans who have long been suspected of involvement in Smith's disappearance because of their actions during the night and early morning of July 4 and 5, 2005. It was reportedly filmed on the ship, shortly after Smith went missing, but only made known to the Smith family and their lawyer Michael Jones a couple of years ago, Jones said.

"The FBI has had the tape all this time," said Jones, who has been representing the Smith family for seven of the nearly eight years since the tragedy.

"The Russian-Americans filmed themselves, where they are joking on his death, and making incriminating statements," said Jones. "They have carried the investigation further."

Speaking for the Smith family, who declined to be interviewed, Jones said, "We've decided we're going to tell the public what is on the tape ... to break the news on the show."

Smith's widow, now married with a child, declined to be involved with the show, said Jones.

The story of that July 4 night of George and Jennifer's honeymoon includes the couple's first encounter on ship with Gregory Rozenberg, cousin Zachary Rozenberg and friend Rostislav Kofman. It was a night of heavy drinking, gambling and acting out, with Smith supposedly revealing he was traveling with "heaps of wedding-gift cash" by one report.

Smith was said to need help returning to his cabin by the three Russian-Americans, who were accompanied by a fourth friend, while wife Jennifer had passed out elsewhere. From there the story has many accounts of what happened in the Smith cabin. But the upshot was that a loud thud was heard and the next morning sizeable bloodstains identified as Smith's were found on a metal lifeboat canopy below Smith's cabin balcony.

"They pass a video camera around filming themselves commenting about George's death in a very callous way," Smith tells CBS's Miller on the show. "But the really incriminating statement is one of them stands up at the end of the tape and sort of hunches his shoulders and flashes gang signs and says, 'Told ya I was gangsta' and in the context of the discussion about George's death, almost as if he's bragging about having done something to George."

There have been no arrests. Gregory Rozenberg has subsequently served three years in prison, reportedly for trafficking in narcotics that apparently supported his taste for fine jewelry and watches. Smith was said to be wearing on his honeymoon a wedding gift of a Brietling watch, worth many thousands of dollars.

Viewers of the CBS broadcast will see Smith's parents, George and Maureen Smith, and daughter Bree standing before a commemorative tree planted in memory of their son near where he worked in Cos Cob with his father. The tree was planted as a sapling and is now nine feet tall.

"Why hasn't someone been arrested?" Bree Smith asks in the CBS tease. "We are still sitting here seven and a half years later and we still do not have justice."